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Facebook, the world's biggest social network, is gearing up to tackle fake news and misinformation ahead of the South African elections.

General elections will be held in SA on 8 May to elect a new National Assembly and new provincial legislatures in each province. This will be the sixth election held since the end of the apartheid system in 1994.

Vulnerable: The IEC was the first electoral body in the world to introduce digital nominations, but as the voting process becomes ever more high-tech, so does the risk of fraud and cyberattacks increase. (Gianluigi Guercia/AFP and Delwyn Verasamy)

The treasury in late 2017 blocked the extension of a suspicious contract that possibly could have prevented this week’s crippling load-shedding. It was found not to have met public procurement requirements.

Eskom is now investigating new irregularities picked up in a new attempt to restore the contract and to stave off load-shedding.

20 March 2019: Nobuhle Mohlala, who was raised at SOS Children’s Villages Nelspruit, wrote an inspiring letter thanking SOS Children’s Villages SA for the loving home provided to her for more than 10 years.

Like many of the children who end up in SOS care, she and her siblings did not have an easy start to life. They had a terminally ill mother, who eventually died, and a father who was never involved in their upbringing.

Former president Jacob Zuma has defended his lobby for a proposed R1tn nuclear energy deal with Russia, saying it would have solved the country’s electricity crisis.

“The fact of the matter is nuclear could solve our problems, once and for all. Now we are in deep [trouble]. We are therefore increasing the debt of the country with no hope to bring it down. That’s a problem,” he told Business Day in an exclusive interview with Karyn Maughan, published on Friday.

A deal with Russia’s Rosatom would have been in SA’s best interests, he added.

A lecturer moonlighting as a fairy godmother is looking to expand her network of assistants as she helps fund needy students' travelling expenses, graduation attire and monthly groceries – all with the tap of a mouse.

Over 1 400 students have reached out to the University of the Western Cape's (UWC) Fairy Godmother in the last two years, with needs ranging from textbooks to closed shoes for winte.

Eskom will implement Stage 2 load shedding on Friday, as strain on the national grid improves and “signs are encouraging” that there will be reduced rotational power cuts as available generating capacity improves, according to Eskom spokesperson Andrew Etzinger.

Stage 2 will be implemented between 09:00 and 23:00 on Friday.

This is the first time in almost a week that Eskom will not implement Stage 4 cuts, which removes up to 4 000 MW from the grid.